Japan Cuts: Festival Of New Japanese Film 2023

Japan Cuts: Festival Of New Japanese Film celebrates contemporary filmmakers with one of the most eclectic lineups each year, and Geek Vibes Nation is proud to cover the fest once it starts up later this month! It kicks off in-person on July 26th, running until August 6th at Japan Society in New York City.

This year will see a celebration of the late composer Ryuichi Sakamoto on the 29th, where Elizabeth Lennard’s documentary Tokyo Melody: A Film About Ryuichi Sakamoto will screen for the public, on a rare imported 16mm print to enjoy. Lennard will be present for a Q&A after the show.

Among the festival’s guests is Yuya Yagira, who will be presented the 2023 CUT ABOVE Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film for his work in this year’s entry, Under The Turquoise Sky from filmmaker KENTARO, which screens in-person August 4th. Both KENTARO and Yagira will be visiting for a Q&A after the film on the 4th, making special appearances for an encore showing on the 5th.

We’ve gone through the spoils of what JAPAN CUTS 2023 has to offer this year, and to whet your appetite here are a list of just some things GVN is excited to see. Check it!

Best Wishes to All (dir. Yuta Shimotsu)

The logline on Japan Society’s site can’t put this any better: “What would you do for happiness?” In his feature film debut Yuta Shimotsu sends us to a young woman’s old childhood home to spend time with her grandparents, but something’s not quite right there. The source of happiness is interrogated and you may not like what you see. Unsettling might not even begin to describe it. Takashi Shimizu (creator of Ju On: The Grudge) is an executive producer on this, and that’s all we need to prepare us for diving into the horrifying unknown.

The First Slam Dunk (dir. Takehiko Inoue)

The first Slam Dunk movie (more of a special, really) premiered in 1994 in the US, and the final installment in ’95, making this the first new feature-length Slam Dunk film for the franchise in 33 years. It’s already won the Film Prize for Best Animation of the Year at the Japan Academy. Ryota and his teammates at Shohoku High School enter the Inter-High School National Championship and the pressure is mounting. Sports films are one thing, but animated sports films are on a completely different level. We’re in.

I Am What I Am (dir. Shinya Tamada)

Toko Miura astonished us in Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car, and her next role promises something just as enticing in Shinya Tamada’s new feature. Kasumi (Miura) is constantly pestered by her mother who wants her to marry, but Kasumi cannot foster romantic feelings for others. She explores aromanticism within the rigid gender roles expected of binary men and women, but wants to break out of those constructs to find fulfillment outside the conceit that romantic love has all the answers. Along with her in this journey is her outsider friend Maho (Atsuko Maeda). We need more films that explore and challenge shifts in the gender spectrum, and seeing that I Am What I Am has those goals in mind we’re eager to see where this journey goes.

Single8 (dir. Kazuya Konaka)

A film about filmmakers making a film, inspired by Star Wars and set in the summer of ’78, Single8 has everything on paper that excites us. Following a small group of enthusiastic classmates, they embark on their path to storytelling with their own film, a science fiction love story called “Time Reverse.” Director (in the film) Hiroshi (Yu Uemura) wants to cast his crush Natsumi (Akari Takaishi) in the lead role, but will she accept? This sounds like a film that pulls from Kazuya Konaka’s own calling to filmmaking, and with that in mind this already sounds like an experience not to be missed.

MONDAYS: See You “Next” Week! (dir. Ryo Takebayashi)

Speaking of time reverse, MONDAYS is a time loop film that puts us in the workplace. Akemi Yoshikawa (Wan Marui) pulls an all-nighter to finish a project for a client only to wake up to the day restarting, making her start over again and again, and again. The only way out is to convince her boss (played by the prolific Makita Sports) and co-workers of the loop so they can work together to set things back to their relatively normal timeline. This sounds like a blast — so there’s no way we’re missing this.

J00531 (dir. Hiroki Kono)

The debut feature by actor-turned-director Hiroki Kono (Shinichiro Ueda’s Special Actors) puts us at the start of young salaryman Kanzaki’s mystery trek. Leaving Tokyo for an unidentified location hours away, his expedition is a long and arduous one, soliciting the help of a petty thief (Kono) to take him for the price of ¥1 million in cash. The mysterious nature of what Kanzaki’s end goal really is is enough to pull us in, but describing it as a minimalist road movie with daring long takes, stretches of silence, and a focus on handheld camera work has us absolutely hooked on what Hiroki Kono has waiting.

People Who Talk to Plushies Are Kind (dir. Yurina Kaneko)

We all love something soft and cuddly sometimes. Following a trio of college students, Plushies traces their immersion into a Plushies Club, run by students as a safe haven for withdrawn and sensitive youths. Everyone gets something different out of the club, as it confronts gender and masculinity through a lens of nonconformity in a quest for acceptance for all in contemporary society. As we continue to explore gender expression in an increasingly tumultuous and hateful landscape it’s important to identify safe spaces, and our hope is that Plushies can provide that to those of us struggling to find one.

From the End of the World (dir. Kazuaki Kiriya)

Planet Earth has two weeks left of existence and only one girl (Aoi Ito) has the power to save it. Kiriya hasn’t directed a film in 8 years, and his return is something to be celebrated from the director of Goemon and Casshern. Spanning from ancient past to the far-flung future and with a “time-bending narrative,” We’re already on board for whatever Kiriya has in store for his audience with this sci-fi venture.

When Morning Comes, I Feel Empty (dir. Yuho Ishibashi)

Slice-of-life films are fascinating. This one follows the day-to-day life of a part-time convenience store worker, Nozomi (Erika Karata), as she passes the time at work conversing with coworkers and stocking the shelves under the characteristically uncharacteristic tones of retail muzak. She runs into a former junior high classmate — rather they run into her — who reconnects her to the outside world. Through their interactions, Nozomi’s past comes into focus as a stressed and overworked corporate assistant. Morning aims to examine how Nozomi works for her own happiness, and its explorations of grind culture promising a fulfilling life but returning the opposite has us thinking more and more about the manufactured societal expectations of success.

Convenience Story (dir. Satoshi Miki)

All we needed to know about this: supernatural happenings in a convenience store. Setting the main character as a deadbeat screenwriter with a history of writing contrived “male fantasy films” and thrusting him into an alternate dimension just sweetens the pot. Kato (Ryo Narita) meets a young girl (Atsuko Maeda) and her classical music-obsessed husband there, and perhaps finds the creative spark he needs. We’ll see what this has to say about transgressive male screenwriters when given the chance to change their ways but for now, we’re pressing play.

What are you most excited to check out at the festival? Let us know over on Twitter, and be sure to learn more about the festival including links to buy tickets on their website.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0JTaaHEo9I]